Rolling In The Deep
by Antha32
Summary: Finnick Odair is drowning. The Districts are drowning. Annie Cresta is drowning. And there is no escaping the water. My view on the end of the 70th Annual Hunger Games. For the April Starvation Prompt- Inescapable.


Rolling in the Deep

Words: 1592

Starvation Prompt- Inescapable

Finnick/Annie

* * *

><p><em>Cold, cold, cold. Too cold, wet, wet, wet…<em>

* * *

><p>Waves move through the arena as the remaining tributes panic. The flood was a direct assessment of the President, but when the Gamemakers had asked why he asked for such a request, he denied any one of them answers. The Gamemakers found this odd. Snow usually had a reason for his choices, and was not afraid to voice them. He would usually tell them why they were setting fire to this girl, or the reasoning behind the avalanche to destroy that group of allies. He refrained this time, much to everyone's confusion. No one questioned, though. They know better than anyone not to irritate the President. One little word said, and you could end up hanging from a banister or worse.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Blue, all I see is blue, everywhere, and everything blue…<em>

* * *

><p>Finnick Odair stares at the screen with a scary, unwavering gaze as the water reaches the tributes' knees and they start to scramble for their lives. The other victors, especially Johanna Mason and Haymitch Abernathy, look at him with confusion. Finnick is hardly ever this focused on the Games, even when he has kids that are still living. He usually lets his mentor partner do the work while he sits back with Haymitch and Johanna and drinks. No one really questions the three of them with alcohol- it is their way to deal, and everyone had their ways. It is odd in many ways to see Finnick without a glass in his hands, let alone so into the television. Mags Bennett seems to be the only one who understands the boy. She knows him outside the world of the Games. She knows that the only time he has a glass in his hands is when he is in the Capitol. She knows he has never once had a drink in District 4, because he doesn't have a need to there. She knows that his unwavering gaze is not on the Games, but on the dark-haired, blue-eyed girl in them. She knows he had snuck away to the President's office in tears, and had come back with a confident but terrified and sad look on his face. She knows Finnick and loves Finnick, and hates knowing that as hard as the boy fights, he is not going to win the way he wants to.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Waves, waves here and there and everywhere, moving back and forth, back and forth, taller than me and crushing over me, over and over again…<em>

* * *

><p>The water is up to the necks of the children now, and the waves are getting wilder by the minute. The littlest girl, a thirteen year old from 5, is already sinking into the water when a wave hits her too hard and a cannon fires in her death. A boy from 11 by the name of Reed pushes against the waves with his large body, but his unmoving arms and legs shows that he had no knowledge of water, and he falls into the water hard not a minute after the water hits his chest. The alliance of two girls from 8 and 6 respectively hold onto each other, but the weight of their embrace pulls them under as well. The Careers leave their alliance quickly, for in the end, it is every man for themselves, and they scramble about, trying to swim as best they can, but a boy from 1 and a pair from 2 will not have enough experience in water to survive that long. They have to hope that everyone else dies before them. Gretele from 10 is holding up pretty well, his arms and legs pulling along through the water. Besides those four, there was only one other left fighting- that girl who has seemingly gone crazy from 4. No one is really paying attention to her anymore- she isn't going to win, no one who loses their mind in the arena lives for long. However, she has gained some viewers again, as she is from 4, and probably is the only tribute left who actually knows how to swim. Still, she is bond to die. She hasn't been doing much of anything since they beheaded her District partner.<p>

* * *

><p><em>The water is like at home, so pretty and light and open…why should I fight, why, I could let the waves come and take me… away from these memories, away from everything…<em>

* * *

><p>Finnick cannot keep his eyes off her. She knows how to swim, he taught her himself. He knows she can do this. She just has to keep swimming, wait it out, for all of them will die before she does if she just keeps swimming. Why is she not swimming hard enough? Her dark hair is covering her face, but he can see her eyes through the breaks in the curls, and he knows that she's about to give up. She can't though. She needs to keep fighting. She needs to come home. Finnick knows he can fix her, make all her fears go away and bring her back to him, only if she keeps swimming. <em>Please, <em>Finnick prays as he closes his eyes, _I know I'm selfish, but please do this for me, Annie, I love you so much, please keep swimming. All you have to do is swim. Please keep your promise. Please swim for me. Do it for me._

* * *

><p><em>I need to swim, swim, swim, swim…I promised Finn, I told Finn I'd come back to him, I told him, I love him, I promised…<em>

* * *

><p>There is only four left now. The boy from 2 drowned already, and now left is a lowly four. A boy from 1, a girl from 2, a girl from 4, and a boy from 10. They are swimming, but not very well. It is obvious that the remaining Careers are trying to find somewhere that there is land, but the water is inescapable. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. All there is left is water, moving to suffocate them all, waiting to strike all but one of them. The Districts know this feeling, for they feel it ever year. The Games themselves are very much like this flooded arena. There is no escaping them, and everyone is going to lose except one, and the winner isn't going to be proud of their accomplishment. They would have just been the only one who didn't drown that year. It doesn't matter all that much, for they all drown at one point or another.<p>

* * *

><p><em>My name is Annie Cresta, I'm eighteen years old, I'm in love with Finnick Odair, and I promised I'd swim, that I'd win. I need to move my arms, I need to keep swimming…<em>

* * *

><p>Two more cannons are heard, and there are no more Careers. Just two children left. Ironically, it's two eighteen year olds, and a boy and a girl. The two oldest tributes are the ones left this year. Oldest, but not scariest. Probably the most innocent of the final 10 in the arena. The boy, Gretele, hasn't hurt one person in the entire Games. He had run off at the beginning and had not been seen all that much until now. The girl, Annie, had also run off, but her District partner, Chipper, had joined her, and when the Careers showed up, they had let her watch as they cut his head off. Annie had been fast enough to get away from them, but she had hid in a cave that hardly concealed her. The Careers would have found her eventually if the water had not flooded, and the poor girl would not have been able to fight. Watching a boy from your hometown die can make you crazy, and it certainly did so for Annie Cresta. She can swim, though, so she is left. So is Gretele. The unwanted final two. No one has betted on them, for there was no reason to, but now, one of them would win, for they could swim. Swimming turned out to be the factor of life or death this year.<p>

* * *

><p><em>I cannot breathe. Why can't I breathe? I need to breathe! I need air! I need to go home, I need to keep swimming, I need to keep breathing, I need to keep living…I want Finnick, all I want is Finnick, please bring me back to Finnick, please…<em>

* * *

><p>Two waves hit the final two simultaneously. They both sink under the water, and everyone knows this is the final trial. Who can hold on the longest? Who can survive the water the longest? Who will be the one to escape the arena, and who will be lost to the water forever? Who is to win, and who is to lose?<p>

* * *

><p><em>It is dark when I hear the boom of a cannon.<em>

* * *

><p>President Snow smiles as they fish the girl out of the water. He chuckles lightly. Finnick Odair got what he wanted, after all. His girl lived. Snow got what he wanted too. Finnick Odair would never again question his authority, but the boy also lost anyway. He didn't know it, but Snow did. He had seen enough victors to know what happens to them, especially the mad ones. There is no escaping their minds after the Hunger Games. That girl, sweet little Annie, would never be the same, and Finnick Odair would be forever damaged as well. Snow chuckles as he turns away from the screen. He has much to do. After all, there is now a victor for the 70th Annual Hunger Games.<p>

* * *

><p><em>AN: I hope you all enjoyed this story! Where you able to understand the changing POVs? I hope so. This was written for the April Starvation Prompt! Please review! _


End file.
